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Forcepoint Security Labs at BSides LV, Black Hat USA and Def Con

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Forcepoint Security Labs researchers are hitting the road at the start of August to get involved in arguably the three most famous research-driven security conventions in the world. I’ve summarized both what Forcepoint will be up to at all three events as well as highlighting great ways for you to learn more about the emerging technologies and research in cybersecurity. We hope to meet up with you there.

[UPDATE Aug 13, 2018] The slides for both of Forcepoint's Black Hat presentations are now available to download.

BSides LV

Date: August 7-8.

Location: Tuscany Suites, Las Vegas.

BSides Las Vegas is a free, volunteer organized event now celebrating its 10th year. This popular conference (the mission of BSides is to “put the INFO back in INFOSEC”) draws from all aspects of the infosec community from the deeply technical to executive leaders, and features speakers on an astounding array of topics, all designed to provide information to the community. However, tickets are limited; such is demand for the interactive nature of the talks. If you want to attend, be sure to show up early! Some highlights this year include an up close look at North Korea’s anti-virus solution SiliVaccine, research findings on security for serverless environments, and a deep dive into government wiretapping.

Forcepoint will be sponsoring the event this year. Keep an eye out for myself, Raffael Marty, or Sarah Vela – we’d love to connect with you there.

If you won’t have chance to get to Vegas there is likely a BSides conference near you.

Black Hat USA 2018

Date: Two-day main conference (August 8-9).

Location: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas.

The Black Hat conference series needs no introduction. With the first event dating back to 1997 Black Hat USA is now in its 21st year. Forcepoint is once again pleased to sponsor this flagship security conference at the Diamond level.

At The Booth

I will be discussing the security model of WebAssembly at the booth and offering some tips to analyse wasm modules. Here’s a look at some of the other presentation titles featured in the booth’s theatre:

Presentations

A variety of biometrics have been used for authenticating user identities, including fingerprinting, facial recognition, and keystroke analysis. Natural language processing research has found that people's use of language can also be uniquely identifying. Language modelling is a technique for measuring how likely words and phrases are, given some observations about previous language use. It is used heavily in speaker and author identification as well as speech recognition and machine translation.

Rather than building systems with actual security knowledge, companies are using algorithms that nobody understands and, in turn, discovering wrong insights. Raffael Marty, Forcepoint VP of Corporate Strategy, will be discussing how the lack of explainability and verifiability in AI and ML algorithms can be dangerous. A talk not to be missed as he cuts through the hype.

Level Up Breakfast Bar

Date: Thursday, August 9th | 7AM – 10AM

Location: Fleur at Mandalay Bay

After a long week of workshops, keynotes and briefings, we thought our customers and special guests might appreciate an opportunity to recharge and relax. On Thursday morning, we hope you can join us at Fleur at Mandalay Bay. There will be a gourmet breakfast spread, fresh coffee, mimosas, you can even build your own Bloody Mary. And in true Las Vegas style, we’ll also provide an energy-boosting, headache-relieving oxygen bar.

Make sure to stop by booth #620 to grab your breakfast pass. The pass will expedite your entry providing you VIP access to the front of the line! (A Black Hat badge is also required.)

Def Con 26

Date: August 9-12.

Location: Caesar’s Palace & Flamingo, Las Vegas.

One of the world’s largest hacker conventions, Def Con flows into the weekend. Running for over a quarter of a century Def Con is the place to be if you want to take in deep technical talks and extend your network with fellow-minded security folks from around the world. Some of the highlights this year include Jeanette Manfra from the Department of Homeland Security on keeping U.S. elections safe and Wesley McGrew on securing containers. There’s truly something for everyone at Def Con, including a talk from the NSA’s Rob Joyce entitled “Building Absurd Christmas Light Shows”. Forcepoint Security Labs researchers will be in the corridors and presentations at Caesar’s and look forward to bringing back the knowledge shared at the conference to help better protect our customers.

About the Author

Carl Leonard is a Principal Security Analyst within Forcepoint’s Security Labs team. He is responsible for enhancing threat protection and threat monitoring technologies at Forcepoint, in collaboration with the company’s global Security Labs teams. Focusing on protecting companies against the...